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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Virginia
Men’s Tennis Falls to Virginia in NCAA Second Round
5/7/2023 | Men's Tennis
Rebels Fall 4-0 to No. 5 Ranked Cavalier Squad
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 26 Ole Miss men's tennis team saw its NCAA Tournament run come to a close on Sunday, as the Rebels ultimately fell 4-0 to the No. 5 Virginia Cavaliers in the Regional Final in Charlottesville.
The Rebels (18-10, 6-6 SEC) faced a tall task in having to battle the defending national champion Cavaliers (26-4, 12-0 ACC) on their home courts, and despite the Rebels playing UVA tightly the entire way through it was Virginia that came out on top with a 4-0 scoreline.
"I am very happy with the year overall," head coach Toby Hansson said. "There were many really close matches that went our way and I credit that to our guys and the way they prepared in practice and competed on match days. I will look back at this season happy to know that we left it all out there on the court."
To open the match, all three doubles matches proved to be back and forth contests, as the Rebels were knocking on the door to earn a crucial doubles point against the Cavaliers. The first domino to fall, however, was a 7-5 UVA victory on Court 2, setting Virginia up just one win away from taking doubles.
Another tight win for the Cavaliers on Court 1 was the deciding match, as John Hallquist Lithen and Simon Junk ultimately fell 6-4 in their ranked doubles matchup to give Virginia a 1-0 lead heading into singles.
The Rebels were off to a slow start to singles following a tough loss in doubles, as five out of six Rebels conceded their first set of action, putting Virginia in the driver's seat.
Freshman Isac Strömberg, who was one of the three Rebel victories in Saturday's 4-0 win over VCU, continued his hot streak in singles by claiming a 7-6(6) tiebreaker win in his opening set of play. Fellow Sweden native John Hallquist Lithen also got on the board for the Rebels with a win in his second set, battling back to win it 6-3 and force a third set.
Despite this, some tough first set losses for the Rebels proved fatal in the long run, as both Nikola Slavic and Simon Junk dropped their opening sets via tiebreakers while freshman Noah Schlagenhauf fell 7-5 in set one on Court 5.
After a short rain delay that pushed the match indoors for the remainder of the day, Virginia capped off the match with wins in No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 singles, sealing the 4-0 win and earning their spot in the Sweet Sixteen.
The remaining three matches for the Rebels went unfinished on the day.
Up Next
While the Rebel team is officially eliminated from postseason contention, there still remains a handful of individual Rebel players that must wait to learn their fate for NCAA Individual Championships. Nikola Slavic is currently listed as an alternate in the NCAA Singles Bracket this year, and he and teammate Lukas Engelhardt are also listed as alternates in the NCAA Doubles Bracket. They must wait to see if and how many players drop out of each bracket to find out if they will be competing in each respective tournament, which are set to begin play May 22 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.
Ole Miss 0, Virginia 4
Doubles
No. 58 Montes/Woodall (UVA) def. John Hallquist Lithen/Simon Junk (OM) 6-4
Rodesch/Von Der Schulenburg (UVA) def. Lukas Engelhardt/Isac Strömberg (OM) 7-5
Nikola Slavic/Noah Schlagenhauf (OM) vs. Goetz/Kiefer (UVA) 5-5 unfinished
Order of finish: 2, 1
Singles
No. 64 Nikola Slavic (OM) vs. No. 9 Chris Rodesch (UVA) 6-7(5), 3-4 unfinished
John Hallquist Lithen (OM) vs. No. 26 Inaki Montes (UVA) 0-6, 6-3 unfinished
No. 49 Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (UVA) def. Simon Junk (OM) 7-6(6), 6-1
No. 87 Ryan Goetz (UVA) def. Lukas Engelhardt (OM) 6-2, 6-0
Alexander Kiefer (UVA) def. Noah Schlagenhauf (OM) 7-5, 6-1
Isac Strömberg (OM) vs. Mans Dahlberg (UVA) 7-6(6), 4-2 unfinished
Order of finish: 4, 5, 3
For more information on Ole Miss Men's Tennis, follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissMTennis, on Facebook at OleMissMTennis and on Instagram at OleMissMTennis, follow Coach Hansson on Twitter at @TennisToby.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,1
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
4,5,3
Players Mentioned
